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eternity, for the world and a new pair of skates
The door sprang open, and little Gerda ran out with bare feet into the wide world. She looked back three times, but no one seemed to be following her. At last she could run no longer, so she sat down to rest on a great stone, and when she looked round she saw that the summer was over, and autumn very far advanced. She had known nothing of this in the beautiful garden, where the sun shone and the flowers grew all year round.
"Oh, how I have wasted my time!" said little Gerda; "it is autumn. I must not rest any longer," and she rose up to go on. But her little feet were wounded and sore, and everything around her looked so cold and bleak. The long willow-leaves were quite yellow. The dew-drops fell like water, lead after leaf dropped from the trees, the sloe-thorn alone still bore fruit, but the sloes were sour, and set the teeth on edge. Oh, how dark and weary the whole world appeared! (-Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snow Queen")
I have a pink book of fairy tales that my mother used to read to me. Every night, she read a new one, until we'd been through them all, and then we went back and read my favorites over again.
The Snow Queen was always one of my favorites.
It is such a melancholy story. Granted many fairy tales involved the suffering of young children, so it's not only that. Many involve the perseverance of said children, so it's not only that. I don't know what it is.
It is when Gerda throws her red shoes into the river if only it will give her back Kay, and the river won't accept them. It is the songs of the flowers in the enchanted garden. It is the shattered mirror that is so very metaphorically real. It is the little robber-girl who gives Gerda her boots, and the snow queen's palace, with its walls of drifted snow and windows and doors of cutting winds, and little blue Kay trying to spell eternity in the ice for the whole world and a new pair of skates.
And it is the little robber-girl again, who says at the end, to Kay, "I should like to know whether you deserve that any one should go to the end of the world to find you."
Indeed.
My dream is to write modern version of The Snow Queen. And why not? It's all the rage, really, updated fairy tales. I have big plans for the little robber-girl - it is always the secondary characters I find most interesting.
Sometimes you think there must be an easier way to do this. Sometimes it seems to be getting easier all on its own. Now you have boots and a reindeer, but you still aren't happy. Sometimes you wish you'd stayed at home. You're sick and tired of traveling towards the happily ever after, whenever the fuck that is - you'd like the happily right now. Thank you very much. (-Kelly Link, "Travels With the Snow Queen")
"Oh, how I have wasted my time!" said little Gerda; "it is autumn. I must not rest any longer," and she rose up to go on. But her little feet were wounded and sore, and everything around her looked so cold and bleak. The long willow-leaves were quite yellow. The dew-drops fell like water, lead after leaf dropped from the trees, the sloe-thorn alone still bore fruit, but the sloes were sour, and set the teeth on edge. Oh, how dark and weary the whole world appeared! (-Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snow Queen")
I have a pink book of fairy tales that my mother used to read to me. Every night, she read a new one, until we'd been through them all, and then we went back and read my favorites over again.
The Snow Queen was always one of my favorites.
It is such a melancholy story. Granted many fairy tales involved the suffering of young children, so it's not only that. Many involve the perseverance of said children, so it's not only that. I don't know what it is.
It is when Gerda throws her red shoes into the river if only it will give her back Kay, and the river won't accept them. It is the songs of the flowers in the enchanted garden. It is the shattered mirror that is so very metaphorically real. It is the little robber-girl who gives Gerda her boots, and the snow queen's palace, with its walls of drifted snow and windows and doors of cutting winds, and little blue Kay trying to spell eternity in the ice for the whole world and a new pair of skates.
And it is the little robber-girl again, who says at the end, to Kay, "I should like to know whether you deserve that any one should go to the end of the world to find you."
Indeed.
My dream is to write modern version of The Snow Queen. And why not? It's all the rage, really, updated fairy tales. I have big plans for the little robber-girl - it is always the secondary characters I find most interesting.
Sometimes you think there must be an easier way to do this. Sometimes it seems to be getting easier all on its own. Now you have boots and a reindeer, but you still aren't happy. Sometimes you wish you'd stayed at home. You're sick and tired of traveling towards the happily ever after, whenever the fuck that is - you'd like the happily right now. Thank you very much. (-Kelly Link, "Travels With the Snow Queen")